Multi-Media Conferencing System

ABSTRACT

A multi-media conferencing system that integrates visual, audio, independent data interaction and modification, collaboration of information, independent video and 3D model viewing and manipulation, and networking among all participants in the meeting. Each participant conference display typically shows two content sectors under the control of the presenter and a selectable number of other content sectors under the control of the participant. The presenter conference display selectively includes a presenter dashboard for managing the presentation. Each content sector on the participant and attendee conference displays may be enlarged to full screen or reduced to a sector display or an icon with a simple command. The system also includes geo-location display functionality, participant monitoring, attendee chat functionality, and a wide range of additional functionality under the control of the conference presenter and attendees.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 61/087,225, filed Aug. 8, 2008, the entirety ofwhich is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

This application is a continuation-in-part of, and claims the benefitof, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/538,276, filed Aug. 10, 2009,the entirety of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to multi-media conferencing systems and,more particularly, a multi-media conferencing system with individuallycontrollable display sectors, geo-location display functionality,participant monitoring, attendee chat functionality, and a wide range ofadditional functionality under the control of the conference presenterand attendees.

2. Description of the Related Art

Today's sales, marketing, education, training and overall corporatemeetings require a significant amount of travel to meet face to facewith the necessary participants of these meetings. With travel costsskyrocketing, corporate budgets decreasing and the need for companies todemand more production and efficiencies from their staff the need for anew way of meeting has come to the forefront. The traditional web-basedconference calls and meetings are not viable resolutions to these needs.With today's economy, the need to do more with less, reduce costs butimprove results is paramount. Companies spend millions of dollars intravel costs to get their executives, salespeople, product installationand training teams, managers and directors to meetings with customers orinternal training, education and strategy sessions. The need for thisface-to-face connection is of paramount importance for many companies.

While there are options for connecting with customers and others besidesthe face-to-face meeting, the fact that other means of communicationsfall short of the face-to-face connection continues to force companiesto use physical travel as the primary means for meetings, training,educational and strategy sessions. This is driven by the inability ofcurrent computer-based web conferencing systems to give the samepersonal interaction through seeing the participating parties,recognizing that their body language does not match their verbalcommunications, that multiple participants cannot be actively andphysically viewable and verbal, and the loss of the critical personaltouch of interaction between all parties. The ability to share datainteractively, collaborate and manage document changes are also lackingin today's web conferencing products.

The average cost of a two-day business trip without entertainment canrange from $750 to $1,100 per day, per person. This includes airfare,hotel and a meal per diem. Other cash costs associated with the actualevent of travel is parking fees, rental cars, fuel and tips. Non-cashcosts for a business trip includes nonproductive time going to and fromthe airport, waiting for the flight to board, flight delays, lostopportunity to attend other meetings during that two-day timeframe,catch up time after the trip along with the critical cost of being awayfrom family.

Today conference calls, web-based conferences and video conferencing arebeing utilized. Conference calls allow the presenter to speak to withall participants utilizing a dial in number and most participants canverbally respond. However, true interactivity is lost, while individualsin the audience can become lost in the presentation material because thegroup often does not have effective visualization or other informationto help them follow along other than what the speaker is imparting.

Computer-based web conferencing systems are able to provide limitedlevels of visual and verbal content but they utilize two mediacomponents, the web and a telephone line. They also have significantlimitations in the number of participants who can join the conferencedue to bandwidth issues. With computer-based web conferencing, theparticipants can see the presentation and in some cases the presenter,but their ability to interact real time with other participants andindependently with the data is severely limited. With the limited accessto true interaction come severe restrictions on the ability to interactwith both data and participants at the same time from an independentperspective.

For example, there is typically no way to determine whether participantsactually leave the meeting once they sign in or if they are working onother items instead of participating in the session because theseoptions are basically a one way communication. The newer versions ofcomputer-based web conferencing allow some interaction but they arelimited in the ability for the presenter to share interactive documentsand for participants to interact with the presenter and otherparticipants.

Other areas where traditional computer-based web conferencing orconference calls fall short is the ability to communicate with thepresenter with immediate feedback that allows for modification in speedor content of the presentation during the session. Without thisparticular option, there may be no way to ensure that the learningexperience provided by the meeting is a positive one of that thepresentation content and positioning are being fully understood by theattendees.

With conventional conferencing systems, it may also be difficult to knowexactly who is on the call/session since there is usually no mechanismproviding identification of the participants. Most computer-based webconferencing programs provide a list of attendees that is generallyfirst name only. This basic list does not allow other participants andthe presenter to know anything more about the audience that enablestailoring of the presentation, etc.

Video conferencing allows people to see and hear each other, but itrequires a huge initial investment in video and monitoring equipment forany party wanting to participate in the conference. Then there is theexpensive per-minute charge to transmit the conference utilizing thesatellite system and the need to transport people to the videoconference area still demands travel costs are incurred. The currentoverall experience of conference calls and computer-based webconferencing is a one-way communication channel that, while oftentimesmandated by the circumstances, leaves the audience and the presenterwith a sense of boredom and a “why bother” attitude. There is,therefore, a continuing need for improved electronic conferencingsystems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention meets the needs described above in a multi-mediaconferencing system that brings virtual reality to the business worldthrough unique technology that allows virtual face-to-face meetings oftwo or more individuals. Several types of parties that may be involvedin a conference will be identified for descriptive convenience asmeeting “participants,” which include the “presenter” located at apresenter computer station and one or more “attendees,” each located atan attendee computer station. The presenter computer stations shows apresenter conference display, whereas each attendee computer stationshows an attendee conference display. The functionality of the presenterconference display is similar to but somewhat different form theattendee conference display. For example, the presenter has control overcertain presenter-defined content, whereas the attendees are generallyrestricted to viewing and listening to the presenter-defined content,while they have control over certain attendee-defined content. Thepresenter conference display also has access to a “presenter dashboard”for managing the conference, which is typically not available on theattendee conference display.

While the role of presenter is typically assigned to one participantcomputer station at any particular point during a conference, differentparticipants may be “passed the presenter's baton” during the course ofa meeting. The meeting may also be set up and coordinated by a “host”who may or may not be a meeting participant. In addition, a corporatemulti-media conferencing system may be used by multiple hosts andpresenters involved in multiple conferences, which may be conducted atthe same time or at different times, as desired. Of course, the sameperson may be a host in one meeting, a presenter in second meeting, andan attendee in a third meeting; and the roles of attendee and presentermay change during the course of a meeting as the presenter's baton ispassed among the participants. The multi-media conferencing system mayalso implement a wide range of functionality to implement and enhancethe virtual meeting experience. In fact, the multi-media conferencingsystem is in some ways better than an in-person meeting due to the powerof the multi-media and networking features of the system.

The multi-media conferencing system integrates visual, audio,independent data interaction and modification, collaboration ofinformation, independent video and 3D model viewing and manipulation,and networking among all participants in the meeting. Each participantconference display typically shows two content sectors under the controlof the presenter and a selectable number of other content sectors underthe control of the participant (i.e., presenter or attendee). Thepresenter conference display selectively includes a presenter dashboardfor managing the presentation. Each content sector on the participantand attendee conference displays may be enlarged to full screen, reducedto a sector display, or minimized to an icon with a simple command. Thesystem also includes geo-location display functionality, participantmonitoring, attendee chat functionality, and a wide range of additionalfunctionality under the control of the conference presenter andattendees.

Generally described, the invention may be implemented as a multi-mediaconferencing system for conducting electronic meetings for meetingparticipants that include at least one meeting presenter and at leastone meeting attendee through a group of computer stations interconnectedby a communication network. The system includes a presenter computerstation configured to present a presenter conference display and atleast one attendee computer station configured to present an attendeeconference display. The presenter conference display includes aselectable number of presenter content sectors in which the display sizeof each presenter sector is separately adjustable. Each presenter sectoris expandable to a full-screen view and retractable to a partial-screenview, or to an icon, through operation of a presenter user interfaceimplemented by the presenter computer station. Similarly, the attendeeconference display includes a selectable number of attendee contentsectors in which the display size of each attendee sector is separatelyadjustable, and each attendee sector is expandable to a full-screen viewand retractable to a partial-screen view, or to an icon, throughoperation of an attendee user interface implemented by the attendeecomputer station. In addition, the content of each presenter sector iscontrolled by the presenter computer station, whereas the content of thefirst and second attendee sectors (typically a video sector and a slideshow sector) is controlled by the presenter computer station while thecontent of a third and potentially additional attendee sectors iscontrolled by the attendee computer station.

Although the content of the various sectors can be changed, in apreferred setup the first attendee sector (typically the upper leftcontent sector) is configured to display a video presentation controlledby the presenter computer station, and the second attendee sector(typically the upper right content sector) is configured to display aslide presentation controlled by the presenter computer station.Although these two presenter-defined content sectors are normallycontrolled by the presenter, the presenter computer station may beoperative to release control over the slide presentation to permit theattendee computer to view and re-view the content of the slidepresentation. Without this release of control, the presenter isordinarily allowed to review and modify the slide presentation duringthe course of the conference without obtaining a release of control fromanother conference participant.

The content in the video sector can be easily changed among video feedresources, which can be provisioned in advance or identified during thecourse of a presentation. In particular, the presenter computer stationis typically operative to switch the video presentation between a livecamera feed, such as a video feed of the room where the presenter islocated, and a pre-recorded video feed, such as video file stored on thepresenter's computer station containing substantive material for theconference. The presenter can also select live or pre-recorded videofeeds from networked resources including attendee computer stations,which allows all of the meeting participants to display live video fromtheir location or play pre-recorded video for the meeting participants,as desired, during the course of the meeting. The presenter computerstation is also operative to record the video presentation, which mayinclude various live and pre-recorded, local and networked video feedsfrom different locations that came online during the conference, andplayback the recorded video presentation after conclusion of themeeting.

The multi-media conferencing system also allows the presenter and eachattendee computer station to upload documents during the meeting, whichcan be selectively displayed only on the uploading computer station oron all participant computer stations. Once a document has been uploaded,the presenter and attendee computer stations are typically able tomodify the document and share the modified document with the othermeeting participants. Upload documents may include text files, images,graphic files, 3D renderings, CAD files, x-ray images, MRI images,spreadsheets and many other suitable files in a wide range of fileformats supported by the system.

In addition, the participant computer station is configured to receive apresenter avatar having personal information relating to the presenterincluding the physical location of the participant computer station. Theattendee computer station is also configured to receive an attendeeavatar having personal information relating to the attendee includingthe physical location of the attendee computer station. Otherinformation, such as a photo, biography, and other attachments (e.g.,voice recording, art catalog, publication catalog, music recording,financial history, etc.) may also be included in the avatar. In general,the avatar may range from very basic information to a very sophisticatedpersonal or professional profile, and may include any other compatibledocumentation that the disclosing participant wants to make available tothe group, at the discretion of the participant submitting the avatar.The participant conference displays are configured to selectively show amap with location icons indicating the physical locations of the meetingparticipants on the map (i.e., geo-location function) and a participantlist. When a conference system user brings the cursor over aparticipant's location identifier on the map or name on the participantlist, the associated avatar posted by the selected participant istypically displayed in a pop-up window. The user may then select itemsmade available through the avatar, such as photo, text or voicerecording, as desired, to gain further information about theparticipant. Each meeting participant can individually select and reviewavatar information for other meeting participants without affecting theview of the conference experienced by other participants.

The multi-media conferencing system also implements a number of otherhelpful functions, such as text chat among meeting participants,personal noteboards and personal whiteboards for each participant, andgroup and personal whiteboards, with the ability to save the designatedwork to each participant computer through a “pdf” file or other suitablefile format. The presenter conference display also implements apresenter dashboard, which typically includes a message pane operativeto receive and display a feedback text message received from theattendee computer station, and a presentation management pane operativeto control the content of the presenter controlled sector. The presenterdashboard may also include a presenter notes pane operative to receiveand display text notes entered through the presenter computer stationthat are not shown on the attendee conference display.

The multi-media conferencing system may also be configured to enablemultiple attendee computer stations to participate in the meeting. Eachattendee computer station is configured to start, stop or replay thevideo presentation without affecting the display of the videopresentation on other participant computer stations. The presenterconference display is also operative to selectively display a presenternoteboard for receiving and displaying text notes entered through thepresenter computer station that are not displayed on the attendeeconference display. Similarly, the attendee conference display isoperative to selectively display an attendee noteboard for receiving anddisplaying text notes entered through the attendee computer station thatare not displayed on the participant conference display. The presenterand attendee conference displays are also operative to selectivelydisplay personal and group whiteboards for receiving and displaying textnotes and images.

A useful feature of the system is the “room check” function that allowsthe presenter computer station to send a “room check message” to theattendee station having a limited display time set by the presentercomputer station. The attendee conference display is operative todisplay the room check message and receive an attendance responseindicating the presence of the attendee at the meeting at the time ofthe room check message. The display of the room check message and theability of the attendee to respond automatically expire at theconclusion of the limited display time set by the presenter computerstation. To monitor meeting attendance, the presenter computer stationtypically records the attendance response and the attendee conferencedisplay may automatically terminate in response to a failure of theattendee to timely enter the attendance response.

Another useful feature is the “interactive feedback” function, which canbe used for a number of different purposes ranging from gatheringsuggestions and program evaluations, conducting polls and surveys, andadministrating quizzes and formal tests. In general, the conferencingsystem is configured to enable multiple attendee computer stations toparticipate in the meeting, and the presenter computer station isconfigured to an generate interactive feedback item, such as a poll,survey, test, quiz or evaluation, and to distribute the interactivefeedback item to the attendee computer stations. The attendee computerstations are each configured to respond to the interactive feedback itemand transmit the response to the presenter computer station, which isconfigured to display the individual responses, tabulate the responses,and a display graphical representation of the tabulated responses.

The multi-media conferencing system is also configured to beindependently operated by multiple hosts associated with an owner orlicensor of the conferencing. To help with monitoring and management ofsystem usage, the conferencing system includes corporate reportingfunctionality operative for automatically gathering, storing anddisplaying conference system usage information including identificationof the hosts conducting meetings using the conferencing system and theattendees of each meeting. The conferencing system also implementsmeeting reporting functionality operative for automatically gathering,storing and displaying meeting information including the identificationof the presenter and attendees of each meeting, log-in and log-outinformation for each attendee, attachments downloaded by each attendee,attachments opened by each attendee, and feedback provided by eachattendee.

In one aspect, the invention includes a multi-media conferencing systemfor conducting an electronic meeting for meeting participants includingat least one meeting presenter and a plurality of attendees through aplurality of computer stations interconnected by a communicationnetwork. A conference server, coupled to the communication network andconfigured to receive from the presenter prior to the meeting aplurality of different conference material files, includes a pluralityof different types of information resources. A presenter computerstation, coupled to the conference server via the communication network,is configured to present a presenter conference display. A plurality ofattendee computer stations, each coupled to the conference server viathe communication network, is configured to present an attendeeconference display. A reporting system is configured to maintain arecord of the meeting, in which the record of the meeting includes: anidentity of each meeting participant, a length of the meeting. A routineon the server is configured for presenting on a presenter display a mapshowing a physical location of each of the participants. A routine onthe server is configured for receiving an indication from the presenterthat allows the attendees to access at least one information resourceduring a presenter-defined portion of the meeting. A routine on theserver is configured for presenting at least one quiz on each attendeeconference display, receiving responses from each attendee to the quizand displaying results of the quiz on the presenter display in realtime. A routine on the server is configured for presenting on eachattendee conference display an item requiring a response from theattendee within a predetermined time and disconnecting any attendee fromthe meeting who fails to generate the response within the predeterminedtime. Each attendee conference display includes at least a firstpresenter-controlled sector, a second presenter-controlled sector and anattendee-controlled sector. The first presenter-controlled sector andthe second presenter-controlled sector of each of the plurality ofattendee computer stations display a different set of informationsimultaneously under control of the presenter so that identical contentis presented in each presenter-controlled sector of each of theplurality of attendee computer stations simultaneously. Each attendeecomputer station is configured to permit a corresponding attendeeindividually to select content in the attendee-controlled sectorselected from a plurality of different content options selected from theplurality of different conference material files and to manipulate theselected content individually.

In another aspect, the invention is a method of conducting an electronicmeeting for a plurality of meeting participants including at least onemeeting presenter and a plurality of attendees through a plurality ofcomputer stations interconnected by a communication network. A pluralityof different conference material files, including a plurality ofdifferent types of information resources, prior to the electronicmeeting, is uploaded to a conference server that is coupled to thecommunication network. An attendee conference display is displayed oneach of a plurality of attendee computer stations so that each attendeeconference display includes at least a first presenter-controlled sectorand a second presenter-controlled sector. At least two different sets ofinformation is displayed in two presenter-controlled sectors of each ofa plurality of attendee computer stations simultaneously under controlof the presenter so that identical content is presented in eachpresenter-controlled sector of each of the plurality of attendeecomputer stations simultaneously. Content selected by an attendee isdisplayed in an attendee-controlled sector of each of a plurality ofattendee computer stations. Each attendee is permitted individually toselect content in the attendee-controlled sector selected from aplurality of different content options and to manipulate the selectedcontent individually, so that each attendee views content in theattendee-controlled sector independently of each other attendee. A mapshowing a physical location of each of the participants is presented ona presenter display. The meeting is recorded so as to record each of theinformation resources displayed during the meeting so as to allow playback of the meeting by one of the attendees after conclusion of themeeting. An indication is received from the presenter that allows theattendees to access at least one information resource during apresenter-defined portion of the meeting. At least one quiz is presentedon each attendee conference display and responses are received from eachattendee to the quiz and displaying results of the quiz on the presenterdisplay in real time. An item requiring a response from the attendeewithin a predetermined time is presented on each attendee conferencedisplay. Any attendee who fails to generate the response within thepredetermined time is disconnected from the meeting. A log indicatingactivity of each attendee, including when each attendee joined themeeting and when each attendee was disconnected from the meeting, ismaintained.

The log records information including: the name of each of theattendees, how long they are in a meeting, how many times they leave themeeting, when they come & go, all activities done during the session,performance and test results both after the fact and in real time.

These and other aspects of the invention will become apparent from thefollowing description of the preferred embodiments taken in conjunctionwith the following drawings. As would be obvious to one skilled in theart, many variations and modifications of the invention may be effectedwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of thedisclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a is a functional block diagram of a multi-media conferencesystem.

FIG. 2 is a typical computer architecture diagram of the multi-mediaconference system.

FIG. 3A is a high-level conceptual illustration of functionalityavailable through a presenter conference display in the multi-mediaconference system.

FIG. 3B is a high-level conceptual illustration of functionalityavailable through an attendee conference display in the multi-mediaconference system.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual illustration of an attendee conference display inthe multi-media conference system.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual illustration of a presenter conference displayincluding a presenter dashboard in the multi-media conference system.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual illustration of a presenter conference displayincluding a presenter dashboard in the multi-media conference system.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual illustration of an attendee conference display inthe multi-media conference system in which the content in apresenter-defined sector has been released for editing by an attendee.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual illustration of a participant conference displayin the multi-media conference system in which the content in a videocontent sector is switchable from a live camera feed and a pre-recordedvideo feed.

FIG. 9 is a conceptual illustration of a participant conference displayshowing an attachment uploaded by the presenter and an attachmentuploaded a participant.

FIG. 10 is a conceptual illustration of a participant conference displayin the multi-media conference system in which a content sector displaysa map showing the physical locations and pop-up avatars for the meetingparticipants.

FIG. 11 is a conceptual illustration of an attendee conference displayimplementing a room check function in the multi-media conference system.

FIG. 12 is a conceptual illustration of a presenter conference displayimplementing a personal noteboard function and a group noteboardfunction in the multi-media conference system.

FIG. 13 is a conceptual illustration of an attendee conference displayimplementing a personal whiteboard function and a group whiteboardfunction in the multi-media conference system.

FIG. 14 is a conceptual illustration of an attendee conference displayimplementing an interactive feedback function.

FIG. 15 is a conceptual illustration of a presenter conference displayimplementing the interactive feedback function.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A preferred embodiment of the invention is now described in detail.Referring to the drawings, like numbers indicate like parts throughoutthe views. Unless otherwise specifically indicated in the disclosurethat follows, the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. As usedin the description herein and throughout the claims, the following termstake the meanings explicitly associated herein, unless the contextclearly dictates otherwise: the meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” includesplural reference, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on.” Also, asused herein, “global computer network” includes the Internet.

The multi-media conferencing system solves the problems withconventional conferencing systems and launches a new concept in the webconferencing market by bringing together many aspects of a face-to-facemeeting, along with a rich compliment of multi-media features that arenot typically available at face-to-face meetings, into the virtualworld. The multi-media conferencing system integrates visual, audio,independent data interaction and modification, collaboration ofinformation, independent video and 3D model viewing and manipulation,and networking among all participants in the meeting. The applicationalso allows for multi-tasking during the course of the meeting bysplitting the conference display into multiple sectors for optimizingthe ability to engage, participate and learn during the meeting. Anattendee conference display typically shows two content sectors underthe control of the presenter and a selectable number of other contentsectors under the attendee's control. The presenter conference displaymay also include a presenter dashboard for managing the presentation.Each content sector on the participant and attendee conference displaysmay be maximized to full screen, reduced to a partial-screen sectorview, or minimized to an icon with a simple mouse click or other usercommand. The system also includes geo-location display functionality,participant monitoring, attendee chat functionality, and a wide range ofadditional functionality under the control of the conference presenterand attendees.

The multi-media conferencing system provides tools to allow a trulyinteractive real-time virtual experience. The system is designed to havemultiple sectors on the computer screen that is interchangeable based onwhat the participant(s) need/want to do. The system includes the abilityto watch the presenter, see the presentation and individually manipulatethe data that has been made available so you review/learn at your pace.The presenter has control over certain aspects of the meeting such asallowing for independent manipulation and review of any presentations.Through the click of a button, the presenter can make this informationavailable to the attendees that allow each attendee to independentlymove forward and backward in the presentation being reviewed in themeeting.

The video feature within the application allows the active presenter (orpresenters) to be viewed by all meeting participants (presenter andattendees) during the meeting. The host of the meeting can determine howmany active videos will be used for the meeting and chooses whichpresenters will be activated. Each presenter can record their portion ofthe meeting by clicking on the record button. Once the presentercompletes the current portion of the presentation and passes the “baton”on to the next presenter, that presenter can also click the recordbutton and the application will append the files together. At the end ofthe meeting, the system will automatically upload the file for viewing,provided that host leaves the meeting open for invitees to re-visit.

The multi-media conferencing system also includes the ability to uploadall types of documents for presentations and reviews, such asPowerPoint, Word, Excel, “pdf” and image files. The individualparticipants can also manipulate the data from the file that is beingreviewed. For example, if an Excel spreadsheet is being reviewed, thepresenter can be explaining the numbers in the spreadsheet while anotherparticipant is using that data to build charts, graphs or pivot tables.The participant can also manipulate the data by changing numbers andassumptions or edit the text in a document. The ability to manipulatethe data does not impact the original document or the file that thepresenter is using, but the participants can save the changes to theircomputer for future reference and use.

The architecture of the system allows a selective number of presentationwindows (also called sectors) to be displayed simultaneously, asdesired, in an environment which allows each attendee to maximize orminimize any of the presentation windows. The system also allows eitherthe presenter and/or the individual attendees to manipulate thecollateral presentation material in real-time. The size of a sector canselectively be maximized to full screen, set to partial-screen with someother active sectors in the conference display, or minimized to an icon.Each participant can control the size of the each sector on his or herindividual conference display without affecting the display of theconference on other participant computer stations. This allows eachparticipant to maintain continuity with the overall presentation whilealso enabling individualized focusing and interaction with particularportions of the meeting materials.

The multi-media conferencing system also includes the ability for eachparticipant to monitor and actually “see” who is participating on a mapdisplay and get detailed information about the participants in thesession via individual avatars accessed through a geo-location maputility. A participant can hover over a map any time during the sessionand see, for example, who is participating, what company they work for,what specialty area they are involved in, what city and state they arein, and a picture of them (if the individuals download a picture whenthey build their avatar). The system also provides the ability for eachparticipant to build an individual avatar or import one from Google orAOL. An avatar is a “mini-me” that identifies who you are, what yourposition is, what company you represent, what specialty area you areinvolved in, what city and state you live in, what your educationalbackground is and a picture of you or a representative symbol that youchoose for people to see, and may contain a wide range of otherinformation and attachments at the avatar poster's discretion. Theparticipants can each determine how much or how little information theywant to share with others.

The multi-media conferencing system also includes the ability to see anattendee list so that each participant can quickly and easily identifywho is participating in the session. Participants can also engage intext chat messaging with any other participant, which may includingmultiple chat recipients or single chat. The system also provides theability to participate in virtual networking through identifying fromthe avatars and attendees listing someone with whom a participant wouldlike to connect with after the session. A participant can easily send aquick chat and schedule to connect with another participant after thesession. And, with a simple click of the mouse, any selected sector canbe increased to full-screen size, retracted to partial-screen size, orminimized to an icon, with another click.

The multi-media conferencing system also includes the ability to provideimmediate feedback written to the presenter, which advantageously allowsthe presenter to modify the presentation to fit the needs of theaudience as those needs are communicated during the course of theconference. This includes very simple iconic messages such as a “smileyface” indicating that the responding attendee is doing great, a“thoughtful face” indicating that the attendee is a struggling a bit, oran urgent “what the heck face” indicating that the attendee has becomelost or confused. An attendee may also text information to the presenterif there is something specific that the attendee wants the presenter toknow or cover. The presenter can either field this information or canhave an assistant field it so proper response is given to the feedback.

The presenter dashboard provides real time information that is coming tohim by the attendees. When an attendee submits data to the presenter,the presenter receives a “number” indicator that there is informationavailable for him to review. It also lets him know if the feedback isgood or bad through a color indication-green for good, red for bad. Thepresenter dashboard also allows the presenter to launch surveys,quizzes, questionnaires, evaluations and tests and this is where theresults would reside until uploaded in a report format determined by thepresenter after the meeting.

The presenter has the ability to design “cliff notes” for his personalreview during the meeting. These notes are designed as “reminders ofinformation” to share with the attendees. The system also provides theability to interact in an orderly manner with the presenter and otherparticipants through multiple video feeds. Utilizing web cameras thatrange in price from $40 to over $100, the system provides the option ofhaving multiple video feeds to provide that personal touch you look forin the face-to-face meetings. As the host of the meeting identifies whohe wants to participate in an active video, he selects the participantsname and the application sends a request to that participant to allowtheir web camera activation. Seeing someone's body language, facialexpressions and covert attitudes is critical to ensuring a positiveexperience whether it's selling, training, strategizing, etc.

The multi-media conferencing system also includes the ability to haveprivate video chats amongst the participants. Private chat sessions arescreened in the application similar to having Instant Messaging with aweb camera. A small video window opens up in the lower right hand cornerof the computer screen of those participants having the private videochat.

The attendees can “travel” through 3DS models which allows them theopportunity to experience the point the presenter is making. Whetherthat model is a heart, lung, building, etc. each participant canindependently manipulate the 3DS model, rotate it, enlarge it and travelthrough it for their own individual learning style. As with the datafiles identified earlier, the presenter or presentation is not impactedby the participants' manipulation and once finished they will rejoin themodel review being emphasized by the presenter.

The ability to independently review whatever animation/video series ismade available by the presenter. As with the data files and 3DS modelsidentified earlier, the presenter or presentation is not impacted by theparticipants' manipulation and once finished they will rejoin the modelreview being emphasized by the presenter.

The attendees also have the ability to strategize, keep group notes,take meeting minutes, save discussion points, use the “parking lot” foritems needing review at later sessions, etc. on a group noteboard. Thegroup noteboard is real time and everyone can enter data on it at anytime. Everyone sees what is placed on the noteboard, who placed it andthe time the information was put on the board. At the end of themeeting, everyone can download, save and transmit the information on thenoteboard as a “pdf” or other suitable file type. Every meetingparticipant also has a personal noteboard for their individual use andlike the group noteboard, it can be downloaded, saved and transmittedfor saving their work as a “pdf” or other suitable file type.

The sister to the noteboard is the whiteboard. All participants canscript notes, draw or paste pictures to the whiteboard in an orderlymethod and the Master will be maintained as part of the archivedsession. All notes and drawings can be saved to individual computersthrough a “pdf” or other suitable file format that each participant hasaccess to. Like the noteboard, all meeting participants also have apersonal whiteboard that no one else can see and the contents can bedownloaded, saved and transmitted as “pdf” or other suitable file types.

In one embodiment, participants are able to screen cast any electronicinformation to the whiteboard. Such information could include, forexample, photographs, videos, audio clips and text documents. Theinformation could include any electronic information available to anyparticipant, including files stored on the participant's computer, filescopies from the global computer network, etc. The whiteboard alsoincludes a plurality of tools, including drawing tools, text tools,highlighting and underlining tools, etc. Typically, this can be done byselecting content (such as a file) to be posted on the whiteboard, thenclicking on an icon (e.g., a camera shaped icon), placing the cursor ina desired location on the whiteboard and then clicking the icon again.This results in the content being posted on the whiteboard for access byall the participants.

The presenter has the ability to test/poll the participants real timewith immediate results made available for the presenter. This iscontrolled through the presenter dashboard and all participants respondthrough a multiple choice process that allows auto calculation of theresults. This is another tool used to gauge how well the presentation isbeing viewed and is also a monitor to see how the participants are“paying attention” to the presentation. The results are downloaded to areport system that allows the presenter to choose how he wants to viewthe overall and individual results.

The survey feature within the application allows a presenter/host toschedule different types of interaction with the attendees that includesurveys, polls, pre-tests, post tests, quizzes, evaluations and exams.The application provides the presenter/host the option of releasingthese at any point during the meeting. It also has a reporting mechanismthat allows the presenter/host the option of running different types ofreports on the results of these “surveys” that can be uploaded into Wordor Excel documents for manipulation in graphical formats. An example ofthe data that can be downloaded is the results of a test by person andby the group including correct and incorrect answers. This downloadcapability is designed to allow the presenter/host to forward results onto human resource departments for file inclusion, accrediting bodies forspecific certifications, etc.

The presenter dashboard provides the presenter/host the ability tomanage various parts of the meeting including reviewing instant feedbackfrom an attendee. When feedback is received the presenter/host getsnotification through the presenter dashboard icon. It will identify howmany pieces of feedback have been received and if the feedback ispositive the presenter dial is green, if the feedback is negative thedial is red. Once the presenter reviews the feedback the dial is resetto green and the number disappears.

The multi-media conferencing system also includes the ability to providepictures, photos, brochures, logos and other image files that thepresenter wants the participants to view. They can each view theseimages anytime during the presentation, independent of when others viewthem. As they click on the images, they populate from a thumbnail sizeto full screen and reduce again with a simple click. The image featureis designed to manage .jpg, .tif, .gif and other image files only.

The multi-media conferencing system also includes the ability to provideother attachments for the participants to review during the presentationthat the presenter determines is critical to the overall session butthat they may not review during the presentation. Again, eachparticipant can review this information any time during the presentationindependent of when other participants view it.

The ability to send attendees directly to a specific site on theinternet is provided within the application. When you build hyperlinksand make them available in the attachment feature, the attendees canclick on the hyperlink and it will take them right to the site, whilethey are still in the meeting. So they still participate in the meeting,see the presenter, etc. while they are reviewing the information thepresenter has made available to them. And, for the groups that useinternet tools like Google Docs, they can now collaborate in the meetingwhile Google Docs runs their real time collaboration document forproject updates and modifications.

The ability to archive the entire session including all attachments,photos, polls, whiteboard information, models, feedback, etc. is alsoprovided y the system. This allows others who could not be in attendanceto participate in the meeting at a later date. This also allows thesession to be re-reviewed by any of the participants for study orresearch purposes, etc. By utilizing the archived session, theparticipant viewing the presentation will be unable to interact withsome of the information such as video chat, feedback, networking, etc.However, the presenter will be able to view what others'interactions/participation was.

By utilizing a key that allows the meeting to “remain available” allinformation will be viewable and accessible to individuals who havereceived a special code for them to join the meeting. The presenter canrun a report on all activities within the meeting after it has ended.This allows the presenter/host to understand all aspects of whathappened during the meeting and includes but is not limited to,information such as when and who opened any of the attachments, who andwhen downloaded the attachments, the text chat data from the meeting, anoverview of what “instant feedback” was sent, when you enter and exitthe meeting. The presenter/host will be able to run this report at theirdiscretion.

All of the conference attendees can move from one screen to another witha simple “click on the icon”. The toolbox driven application allows allparticipants to determine what “tool” they want to use during variouspoints of the session. This keeps them interested, interactive andengaged in the session. Their choice is specific to them and does notimpact what other participants do.

Conference attendees can also have breakout sessions where the presenterdetermines who and how long each break out session is. The attendee canvisit each breakout session to review how they are doing and then thesessions come back together in a full session for review of results. Inone embodiment, the presenter can assign each participant to a to one ofa plurality of different breakout sessions. The participants assigned toa particular breakout session interact only with the other participantsassigned to that breakout session. The breakout sessions will each havethe same functionality of the general meeting system, except that abreakout session will allow interaction between only the participantsassigned to that session. The moderator and the presenter will have theability to enter any breakout session of their choosing. The presentercan start breakout sessions and set them to last for a fixed amount oftime set on a timer, so that all participants return to the main meetingonce the timer expires. The presenter will also have the ability toterminate the breakout sessions and force all participants back into themain meeting. The system can record all activity from each breakoutsession for later review. This can be useful for the moderator tomonitor compliance with the purposes of the breakout session and also toarchive information for later use. When a break out room (which is thevirtual space in which a breakout session occurs) is designed by themoderator, the data from the main session goes to the break out room andthe work done in the break out room comes back to the main session.

The multi-media conferencing system also has a “room check” feature thatallows the presenter or teacher to ensure everyone is actually active inthe session. When this room check is released by the presenter, everyonewill receive a notification that gives a set period of time for them torespond by clicking on the requested notification which confirms theyare active in the meeting. If they don't click on the notification, theapplication will automatically log them out.

The attendees have the ability to electronically raise their hands”during a presentation/meeting so they can ask questions of thepresenter/host. The presenter/host sees that action and can respondaccordingly. Once the presenter/host has addressed theirquestion/comment, the application removes the notification to thepresenter/host.

The application is further designed so that desk top sharing is anoption for any meeting/company. In order for desk top sharing to occurall meeting participants may be required to download an executable filethat will allow the application to manage what everyone see through adesktop sharing process. Desktop sharing is featured in one of thesectors of the application which allows the rest of the application tostill maintain its interactivity and data sharing and manipulation.

The invitations have a “sync with Outlook Calendar” button that allowsany meeting invitee/participant to ensure the meeting is on their mainOutlook calendar. Once the sync button has been activated, the meetingpopulates the calendar and provides the meeting link and the meetingreminder driven off the Outlook calendar function.

A cost savings meter is provided to calculate how much the applicationsaves the company on a per-meeting or per-month basis. By inputting thenumber of attendees and estimating the cost of airfare, hotels, andother travel expenses the application will reflect the ROI (return oninvestment) the company is experiencing.

A carbon footprint calculator is also a part of the value propositionfor an organization. By utilizing the carbon footprint calculator toidentify flight and road fuel consumption savings, the system canprovide reporting to the company for the appropriate tax credits, etc.

The company dashboard allows the organization to manage and report onthe usage of the application on an individual, department and divisionalbasis. This information will be able to be reported on and uploaded tovarious reporting tools for graphing, charting, etc.

Integrated conference calling and VOIP connections to allow both mediumsof audio transfer to work, based upon the choice of the attendee. Byintegrating a conference line and VOIP, attendees can choose which meansof audio they prefer and will then be added to the audio portion of themeeting.

The application has 3 methods of communicating with others in themeeting. First, there is a text chat that allows everyone to communicatewith everyone in the meeting by typing text into the text chat area.Once an attendee hits the send button everyone sees the information thathas been typed, who sent the text chat and what date/time the text chatwas sent. The second means of communication is between an attendee andthe presenter and is private between the two. An attendee can send aprivate message through the instant feedback function and when thepresenter receives the data it identifies who sent it, the feedback sentand the date/time the feedback was sent. This instant feedback is onlybetween the two individuals and is real time. The final means ofcommunication is instant messaging within the application. This allowsan attendee to send a private message to another attendee or attendees,based on choosing the name from the attendee list that they would likeincluded in the instant message. The instant messaging is not stored norsaved within the application and upon the meeting ending, thisinformation is lost. The other two methods of communication are savedand reported on at the end of the meeting.

The video sector allows multiple live video feeds and, based on thepresenter's choice. The host of the meeting identifies how manypresenters they want involved in the video sector and based on thechoice, the specific number of panes will populate for simultaneousvideo feeds. Multiple video feeds can challenge an internet applicationdue to the bandwidth necessary to manage the streaming video. As theinternet improves the methodology of streaming videos, the applicationwill handle multiple video feeds simultaneously.

The video feeds can be recorded through a simple click of a button andthe discretion of the presenter. This allows individuals who could notattend the live session the opportunity to enter the meeting after ithas been held and listen to the presenter and enjoy the actual datasharing of the meeting.

The audio can also be recorded in time with moving through thepresentation. So, as the presenter is speaking and moving through theslides of the presentation, the sequence is recorded with the voice forautomatically changing the slides for viewing after the meeting.

The entire meeting can be archived for access and review after themeeting has been held. This would include any aspect of the meeting ahost chooses to archive for future review/use.

The application has a complete library of information that includesinvitees that can be managed by departments, groups or divisions. Italso manages the actual data/information being uploaded and shared inmeetings. This library allows the owners of the original data todetermine if they want to share it with others in the organization fortheir use or if they want to keep that data in their personal library.This feature also provides significant time savings because oncedata/information has been uploaded; it remains available for usesubsequently decreasing the amount of information and time tocontinuously upload information.

A presenter driven e-Tab is available for use. This allows apresenter/host to manage what information is called from the internetand is fully manipulated by the presenter. The application also has ahighlighter that allows the presenter/host to “highlight” any item inany of the sectors and information. The presenter/host can choose frommultiple colors from the highlighter board.

Along with the opportunity to have a private text chat with otherparticipants of the meeting, the application also allows participants tohave private video chats. If a participant has a web camera they canprivately choose another participant with a web camera and invite themto a video chat. At the point of acceptance, two small video windowswill pop up at the bottom right hand side of the computer screen andthey will be able to communicate and view each other privately.

The application identifies on the attendee list those participants whohave web cameras so everyone will know who they can have video chatswith along with giving the presenter an opportunity to invite someone tobe a presenter on the fly.

The application allows a presenter/host to have two presentation sectorsrunning at the same time. This feature ensures the presenter caneffectively manage the complete set of data necessary to give the impactthey are looking for during their presentation and eliminates the needto continuously move from one set of information to the other.

The application has the ability to allow Word and Excel informationuploads in a specific sector. This allows the presenter/host to releaseinformation for the attendee to see only when the presenter/host isready and they can review the information without having the ability tosave the data to their computer. This provides information sharing whilemaintaining the security/confidentiality of the documents beingreviewed.

The application allows the presenter/host the ability to upload a Wordor Excel document that all attendees, including the host/presenter, canmodify real time while everyone else sees what's being modified. Thisallows for things like contract negotiations, budget reviews and othercritical and time consuming revisions can be made during an on-linemeeting that everyone agrees to before leaving the meeting. Thisprovides a solid collaboration tool and saves time and money as thedocument is managed with all participants actively involved.

The application has various reporting capabilities that are all designedto allow each host/presenter to determine how they want to view the datain their personalized presentations. This includes graphical and textviewing along with the ability to upload test results to be delivered tothe specific accrediting bodies. These results reports are compliantwith SCORM regulations.

The application gives the host/presenter the ability to upload documentsany time prior to a meeting starting and after the meeting has started.If a presenter/host needs to add a new document to the meeting, theysimply grab the necessary document while they are in the meeting andonce it has completed the upload process, all meeting attendees hit a“refresh” key in the application and the new data is populated foraccess.

The host/presenter can add an invitee at any time before and during themeeting. The process to add the invitee is simply moving to the Adminscreen, clicking on or typing in their e-mail address and hitting the“Send Invitation” button and they will receive the invitation to jointhe meeting.

To access the application, everyone must typically first log in. Thepreferred system is PCI compliant and is protected with SSL and othersecurity modes to ensure all data remains confidential. Because theapplication is managed through the internet these security measures area must to ensure our customers have the confidence that their data issafe. Each log in is based on an individual e-mail account and a securepassword that is set by each person.

There are typically four (4) roles that the application is designedaround. Participation in the application is driven by these roles. Theadministrator of the company plays the role of purchasing, upgrading andidentifying who will be given the host role. This role has soleresponsibility to manage the purchasing company's designees for hostingmeetings. The application is driven off subscriptions designed aroundthe number of hosts and participants per host.

The role of the host is to schedule meetings and invite the variousparties to the meeting. A system user can be the host for onepresentation while also participating as a presenter and an attendee atother meetings at the same time (or at other times) and the applicationautomatically identifies the role based upon the meeting that the useris entering. The role of the presenter gives the ability to uploadmeeting data and information into the meeting where the person has beengiven presenter rights. A presenter can also be a host or an attendee inother meetings, again driven by the meeting.

The final role is that of an attendee which allows a participant to onlyattend a meeting or edit his or her individual profile. This role hasthe fewest rights within the application. But an attendee for onemeeting can still be a host for another. The role is driven by thespecific meeting being attended and the Meeting Wizard determines whatthe attendee will see based upon that specific meeting information.

Anyone can be associated with more than one company and enter theapplication based on their rights within that company. This allowsconsultants to manage their clients and participate in different roleswith different organizations. By choosing the company you are associatedwith, you get different rites within the application.

The application has a Wizard Meeting Manager that allows the host toeasily schedule and manage the meetings. When the host logs into theapplication it is prepared to assist in processing the data for themeeting. Identifying who will be attending your meeting and what rolethey will play is as simple as adding their e-mail address and selectingeither presenter or attendee. Once you have invited someone to ameeting, their e-mail information is available for re-use by eithermoving through your list of “Available Users” and placing a check bytheir name or by doing a search for their name.

Hosts have the ability to build divisions/departments that will housee-mail addresses for people within those divisions/departments. Anexample would be a Sales & Marketing Department or specific customercontacts. This makes managing the meeting scheduling and invitation areasignificantly easier for the host.

The application has an import “invitees” feature that allows a companyto use an Excel template and place data from mailing lists into thetemplate for bulk invitations or webinars. The application sends outinvitations to the various individuals based on their role in themeeting. No one can enter a meeting without receiving an invitation. Asthe host is identifying the meeting participants, the application savesthe input or contact file. By building departments or groups, the hostcan easily manage the numerous meeting participant lists. This systemsaves significant time since it is intuitive and organized for themeeting host and they no longer have to look up e-mail addresses overand over again for potential meeting participants. Once they haveinvited them to a meeting their contact information is stored for re-useby the host.

Once the invitations have been sent, the host receives acknowledgementthat the invitations have successfully been sent. This allows the hostto move forward with scheduling the rest of the meeting. The host hasthe ability to add invitees to the meeting at any point before or afterthe invitations have been sent, and if a second round of invitationsgets sent only the invitees who did not receive an invitation on thefirst round will receive the invitation on the second round. Invitationscan be sent at any point in the meeting set up. If the host logs out ofthe meeting wizard and has not sent the invitations, the applicationwill “notify” the host that the invitations have not yet been sent andwill ask if they want to proceed with leaving the meeting wizard.

By clicking on the link in the invitation, it takes the individual tothe log in page. Once there, they log in using their confidentialpassword and the application lands them on their “Meeting Page”. Theapplication may require a host/presenter to be accountable for themeeting in every aspect. The host/presenter should not only thinkthrough when the meeting will be and who will be invited, but theyshould process who will present at this meeting, what's the purpose ofthe meeting and what “Meeting Assets” are required to have a successfulmeeting. The meeting assets are those items that the host and/orpresenter uploads into the Meeting Wizard that will allow the attendeesto experience the virtual interaction during the meeting. The process ofuploading meeting data or information may be a simple browse, choose andsave process, which is similar to attaching a document to an e-mail. Byclicking on the Meeting Assets, you see the areas that allow data orinformation to be loaded for the meeting. By choosing a particular tab,you simply browse your system and upload/save the file that you want tomake available to the meeting attendees.

Once a host/presenter has chosen and uploaded the asset, the applicationnotifies the presenter that it has been successfully uploaded and it isready to be utilized when attendees join the meeting. At any point priorto the meeting, the host/presenter can remove assets from the meeting.This is a simple choose the asset to remove and click the “Remove fromMeeting” button. The Wizard will move the asset from “Selected Assets”to “Available Assets” so they can be used again in the future. However,once a meeting has been held, meeting assets are tied to the archivingfeature and cannot be removed or deleted from the meeting.

As the host/presenters move through each of the areas of the MeetingWizard, they can upload the assets for a specific sector. The MeetingWizard will grab the data as you upload it and place it into the correctsector for the actual meeting. Once an asset has been uploaded, andprovided a company has purchased archiving, the company will have alibrary that houses all meeting assets for future use. Eachhost/presenter can determine if they want to allow anyone who haspresenter/host rights to utilize their assets or make them availableonly to themselves. A quick choice in the radio button when downloadingthe asset determines who will be able to access these assets for futureuse.

The host/presenter can also determine when he or she wants to allow theattendees to see and manipulate certain data that has been madeavailable for the meeting. By choosing “Initially Release”, theinformation will be available to the attendees when they enter themeeting. By choosing “no” under “Initially Release” the presentermaintains the right to determine when the attendee will actually haveaccess to certain data/information.

The Meeting Wizard will only let users upload certain types of files ineach segment of the Wizard and will inform you of the inability toupload a particular file in the wrong zone. The “admin” area of theapplication manages meetings for the host/presenter. When users log in,they immediately see their upcoming meetings. The user's past meetingsare also presented in a different area for viewing. If a meeting hasbeen held but is “held open” by the host, the user is able to join thatmeeting and view the various items within the meeting that wereavailable during the meeting. If a presenter/s has recorded theirvideo/audio, the user will be able to play the meeting back andparticipate in all the information sharing that occurred during theoriginal meeting.

The Administrator has access to manage the company profile (ManageCompany) and determine the number of hosts/participants along withidentifying who within the company is designated as hosts. TheAdministrator also makes changes to the company profile should anycorporate information change.

Everyone who uses the application, whether invited to a meeting as anattendee, a presenter or a host, has the opportunity to build theirindividual profile in order to join the meeting. There is minimalinformation that is typically required, but each individual can add asmuch personal/professional information as they desire. Each participantcan also upload a personal photo, image or icon that you want torepresent you in building your personal avatar. Avatars are not requiredbut can be built and customized uniquely to you. Once your profile isbuilt and saved, you have the opportunity to make changes any time youneed (Edit Profile).

The application has the ability to “house” a biography of thepresenters, including an image/photo that all attendees will see whilethey are waiting for the meeting to begin. If a presenter does not wantto use a biography, the attendees will see the following: Please waitfor the Presenter to Join the Meeting. Once the meeting is over, theapplication can automatically, at the host's discretion, send out eithera Thank You for Attending or a We Are Sorry You Couldn't Attend e-mail.The application also automatically sends an e-mail out to all inviteesif the meeting is cancelled or if the meeting is postponed or the dateand/or time changed.

The attendees of the meeting can alert the presenters to their questionsor input through an electronic hand raising feature. The application“highlighter” is controlled by the active presenter. This highlighteracts as a “laser pointer” or “active highlighter” to ensure the meetingparticipants can easily see where the presenter is in a particular partof a document/presentation. This highlighter can be used in any of thesectors of the application to bring the attention of the attendees tothat particular area, including the noteboard and whiteboard.

Data surrounding the meeting is collected and reported, such as [0109]Who signed in to the meeting [0110] What time they entered the meeting[0111] What time they logged out [0112] Who opened each attachment[0113] What date & time did they open the attachment [0114] Whodownloaded each attachment [0115] What date & time they downloaded eachattachment [0116] Feedback sent to each presenter, by whom and time[0117] Results of all surveys, tests, polls, evaluations, quizzes, etc.in multiple reporting options [0118] Public text chat [0119] Groupwhiteboard with detail [0120] Group noteboard with detail

All information/data collected and reported is automatically sent to thehost of the meeting in a format that is easily sorted and charted.

The host/presenter can schedule quizzes and tests using the application.It has the ability to “grade” the test and give the results to thepresenter immediately. This function also provides for report uploadingso each attendee's test results are scored separately and as a group forthe instructor to see the data/statistics as they need. The presentercan see the group results immediately in a text or graphical format.They will have access to individual results after the meeting is overand the application has completed the report upload. At that time, theycan determine how they wish to see the data reported and can use thesereports for certifying CE credits, personnel files, etc.

The application allows for document collaboration and change real timewith the ability for the “group” to accept the changes and to record the“acceptance” by each attendee/participant. An example of this would be adocument being drafted between two different legal firms for a client.The document can be uploaded and at the point they are ready to work onit, it can be displayed in one of the presenter controlled sectors.Whoever is the active presenter can modify the document with theparticipation and immediate approval of the other meetingparticipants/attendees.

A meeting participant/attendee can choose how they view the informationin the application. If they would like to maximize a specific sector andstill see the other sectors for activity, they can choose to their viewto show them 3 thumbnail sectors and 1 max-sized sector.

There is an asset library that is specific to the company and to theindividual hosts of the company. This asset library is customizable bycompany/host and allows for easy filing of individual assets to providequick access to already uploaded data/files. The asset library isavailable only if a company chooses to archive their information withthe system.

The application has the ability to permanently disable a person fromaccess to any company held meetings. This is controlled by theAdministrator. The application also has the ability to have twopresentations running simultaneously during a meeting.

The active presenter can choose to have an assistant manage thepresenter's dashboard so the flow of information and feedback is managedin a timely manner to and from the participants/attendees. The functionis performed with a simple click during the meeting scheduling process.By choosing the “dashboard to an assistant” offload, the presenter isfree to fully focus on the content of the meeting and the assistant cancollate data, feedback and questions as they come through and feed thisinformation to the presenter based on their agreed process.

The architecture of the system is compatible with the various mini-camsthat are currently on the market. Many of these are low cost and it isthe only “hardware” requirement outside of either a desktop or laptopcomputer. If the participants decide to use VOIP which is an integralpart of the application, a USB headset is preferable. It is not arequirement but it significantly enhances the audio experience in a VOIPmeeting. The system architecture is also designed to be secure for thevarious users of the application. Each organization will have its own“secure community/library of information” that is designed through asecure socket (SSL) and password driven/protected. The administrator ofeach community will have the rights to add, change and delete users withtheir community. This allows all archived sessions and documents to beaccessed only by those with the designated privileges and ensures theusers that information cannot be taken, copied or viewed by otherorganizations or guest participants.

The system allows the presenter and the attendees to derive all thebenefits of being there while providing the economies of “attending”from the office. An attendee logs into the meeting via their computer,desktop or laptop. The host ensures the video/audio is captured forarchiving purposes along with all other aspects of the session such asthe whiteboard, attachments, etc. The interactive audio and videoprogram will be captured for the presenter at a hosting presenterstation. The audio and video streams are encoded and produced in amanner such that the participants receive the streamed data in asubstantially real-time manner. Similarly, audio/video streams will becaptured from the participants, encoded and produced and received by thepresenter and other participants in a substantially real-time manner.

Bandwidth limitations may affect any such system subject to modeling andsimulation solutions to determine the optimal environments to achievethe desired goals and objectives of the system users. However, theapplication is designed to be accessed via the web and therefore thetraditional method of downloading information to the users' laptop witha desktop sharing by the presenter is not utilized. This new method ofaccess has a significant impact on the speed of the data being deliveredto all parties.

Retrievable parameters are logged during the conference. As aparticipant views the conference at a time after, or during real-timepresentations, the essence of the conference presentation and the timingof the individual elements are essential to capturing the conference“flow”. Such parameters include: audio/video, PowerPoint and Exceltimings, document manipulations, chats, questions, answers and comments.3DS modeling, animation/videos, participant feedback presented ingraphical form including the timing and content of emotions; surveyresults, etc. are also parameters that must be logged for timing withinthe actual presentation. The “wrapper” that houses all of these elementsis also “serialized” to allow the participant to organize views,manipulate elements and screen layout to an organizational structurethat is pleasing and customized to the participants' preference.Personalization and interactivity is the key to the success of theoverall application.

Referring to FIG. 1, the multi-media conference system 10 includes aconference server 11 that integrates a number of participant computerstations via a computer network, such as the Internet or other suitablelocal or wide area network. The participant computer stations includeone or more presenter computer stations 12 a-n and or more attendeecomputer stations 14 a-n. The system can accommodate multipleconferences potentially involving different groups of participantsconducted at the same time or at different times. A host computerstation, which may or may not be active as a participant in theconference, controls conference scheduling and notification, invitationsto the conferences, participant access control, assignment of thepresenter's baton, and other aspects of meeting administration. Ofcourse, there may be different hosts for different meetings, representedby the multiple hosts 15 a-n. The host may be separate from thepresenter or, if a separate host is not present, the presenter computerstation typically serves as the host.

A conference recording and reporting system 13 records conferenceproceedings and creates a variety of reports concerning operation of thesystem and individual meetings. Corporate reports detail system usage,such as which hosts have conducted or scheduled conferences, theidentities of conference participants, the length of the conferences,the information resources (e.g., attachments, video feeds, etc.)displayed at each conference, and so forth. Individual meeting reportscontain recordings of individual meetings, which can be played backfollowing the conclusion of the meeting. A hierarchical security systemallows a system administrator to control access to corporate and meetingreports. In most cases, the host of a meeting typically controls accessto recorded meetings, while the system administrators have access tocorporate reporting and control functions.

The conference recording system can record all data made available tothe participants of a meeting, including all presentations, text andvideos, on a central server. The recorded meeting can then be madeavailable to the participants (or others). The participants can thenaccess the meeting as though they were attending it.

The presenter and attendee computer stations implement similarfunctionality except that the presenter computer station has controlover certain presenter functions that are not available on the attendeecomputer stations. Although only one participant computer station maytypically function as the presenter computer station at any particulartime, the system also allows a presenter's electronic “baton” to beassigned to different conference participants at different times so thatthe functionality of the presenter computer station can be implementedon different participant computer stations, as desired, during thecourse of a conference. To prepare for a meeting, the presenter uploadsconference material 16 into the conference server 11, which usuallyinclude at least a slide presentation and may also include a wide rangeof other information resources, such as 3D models, text documents,graphical images, photos, spreadsheets, and so forth, in a wide range offile formats supported by the system. These resources may be uploadedbefore or during a conference for display on participant computerstations during the meeting. The system also allows attendees to uploadconference materials 17 a-n, such as attachments and interactivefeedback in connection with the conference. In general, any meetingparticipant can upload any type of supported information resource,display the material uploaded by other participants, download a personalinstance of the material, modify to personal instance, and save thepersonal instance with modifications.

The system also allows each participant to upload a personal informationavatar, represented by the presenter avatar 18 and the attendee avatars20 a-n. The avatars typically include at least the participant's name,which is used to identify the participant in a participant list, andphysical location, which is used to show the location of the participanton a geo-location map display. Each avatar may also include moredetailed information, such as a photo and biography, and attachments,which may be multi-media files such as voice files, images, and soforth. Basically, each participant can decide how much information, andwhat kind of information, to include in and attach to their particularavatar.

FIG. 2 is a typical computer architecture diagram of the multi-mediaconference system 10 implementing a particular conference for a group ofmeeting participants at a particular point in time. The conferenceincludes one of the participants in the role of presenter (i.e., one ofthe meting participants currently assigned the presenter's baton) at apresenter computer system 32. The host or presenter has the option ofactivating conference recording, which causes the conferencepresentation to be saved in the conference recorder 34. The othermeeting participants are in the roles of attendees at the attendeecomputer systems 36 a-n. In this example, the presenter computer system32 or another non-participant may serve as the conference host. Aparticipant computer stations 35 include the presenter computer system32 or the attendee computer systems 36 a-n.

FIG. 3A is a high-level conceptual illustration of functionalityavailable through the presenter conference display 33 displayed on thepresenter computer system 32. Similarly, FIG. 3B is a high-levelconceptual illustration of functionality available through theillustrative attendee conference display 37 a displayed on the attendeecomputer system 36 a. The presenter conference display 33 includesseparately adjustable presenter defined content 40 displayed on aportion of the screen along with separately adjustable presenter orattendee defined content 42 displayed on another portion of the screen.Similarly, the attendee conference display 37 a includes separatelyadjustable presenter defined content 44 displayed on a portion of thescreen along with separately adjustable presenter or attendee definedcontent 46 displayed on another portion of the screen. Each sector oneach participant display is separately adjustable in that the size ofthe sector can be maximized to full-screen, set to partial-screen view,or minimized to an icon. Volume, start, stop and pause functions mayalso be enabled for separate control on attendee computer stations, asdesired.

As shown in FIGS. 3A-B, the presenter and attendee conference displaysare both operable to display the same types of information, in whichsome sectors show content controlled by the presenter (presenter definedcontent 40, 44) and other sectors show content controlled by thepresenter or the attendee (presenter or attendee defined content 42, 46)at the selection of the participant. Typically, two sectors displayed onthe top half of the screen are devoted to presenter defined content 40,44, such as a video sector and a slide presentation sector. This allowsevery participant to experience the same presenter defined content 40,44 at the same time. In addition, each participant can individuallyselect among a wide range of presenter or attendee defined content(presenter or attendee defined content 42, 46), such as a geo-locationmap or various attachments, for display on the bottom half of thescreen. As a result, each participant conference display is operable toshow content that is common to all participant conference displays on aportion of the screen along with individualized that is limited to allparticipant conference displays on a portion of the screen.Notwithstanding the synchronization of content on the presentercontrolled sectors, each participant still maintains a level ofadjustability over these sectors including at least the ability toadjust the size of every sector on their conference display.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual illustration of an illustrative attendeeconference display 37 a in greater detail. The conference display isconfigured to simultaneously enable a wide range of presentation contentand networking among meeting participants. In general, the attendeeconference display includes control items including sector contentselection items 50 and networking selection items 52. The sector contentselection items enable the user to select content for display in amulti-media content area 54, whereas the networking selection itemsenable the user to select networking utilities for display in anetworking area 56. Although the multi-media content area 54 may bedivided into varying numbers of sectors, a four-sector “quad” displayhas been found to be suitable for many situations. The multi-mediacontent area typically includes two presenter defined content sectors 62a-b, each with an accompanying sector control panel 64 a-b. The upperleft content sector 62 a is usually devoted to a video feed, such as alive camera feed from the presenter's location or a pre-recorded videofile on the presenter computer station. The upper right content sector62 b is usually devoted to a slide presentation, although other materialsuch as a spreadsheet, image file, 3D model may be displayed in thissector if desired. Each participant may select individually amongcontent options for display in the bottom sectors 62 c-n. In onealternative, the bottom left sector 62 c may be used to display ageo-location map showing iconic representations of the locations of themeeting participants, while the bottom right sector 62 n may be used todisplay a personal or group whiteboard. A variety of personal and groupnoteboards, personal and group whiteboards, and attachment files mayalso be displayed in the lower sectors 62 c-n.

The networking area 56 displays a number of selectable networking items,such as a participant list in networking pane 68 a, text chat innetworking pane 68 b, and a list of selectable attachments in networkingpane 68 n. The illustrated content and networking items shown in FIG. 4are merely illustrative, however, as other types of selectable contentitems (e.g., 3D model, spreadsheet, CAD file, etc.) and networking items(video mail, network chat, etc.) can alternatively be displayed, asselected by the participants. The sector control panels 64 a-n displaycontrol items for controlling their respective sector windows, such assize control items, scroll control items, volume control items, and soforth.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual illustration of the presenter conference display33, which is basically the same as the attendant conference displayexcept that the presenter computer station is in control of the contentdisplayed in the presenter defined content sectors 62 a-b and thepresenter has access to the presenter dashboard 70 a and associatedsector control panel 70 b. The presenter dashboard is operative todisplay a number of selectable windows for use by the presenter duringthe conference. Three illustrative windows are shown in the examplepresenter dashboard, including a presentation management pane 71, amessage pane 72, and a presenter notes pane 73. The presentationmanagement pane 71 includes control items for managing the presentation,such as items for controlling conference recording, issuing interactivefeedback such as polls, surveys and tests, room check, meeting access,information resource access, and so forth. The message pane 72 allowsthe presenter to receive and respond to text messages and attachmentsreceived from other meeting participants during the course of themeeting. The message pane typically remains live during the meeting sothat any attendee can send messages to the presenter and receiveresponses in real time during the meeting. The presenter notes pane 73allows the presenter to enter, edit and display notes that are notshared with the other meeting participants. The sector control panel 70b displays control items for the sector control panel including theability to select different utilities for display in the dashboard.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual illustration of a participant conference display35 in which a selected content sector 65 has been expanded tofull-screen. Each participant typically has the ability to independentlymaximize any content sector to full-screen, reduce to partial-screen, orminimize to an icon without affecting the conference display on anyother participant's conference display. Although the system isconfigured to allow each attendee to have this capability individually,the presenter management pane may also include selectable control itemsfor locking or resetting the presenter-controlled content sectors on allor selected attendee conference displays, as desired. The presentermanagement pane may also allow the presenter to lock or reset the sizeof the presenter-controlled sectors while allowing the attendees tocontrol the size of the other sectors. Therefore, the ability of theindividual attendees to resize their sectors may be uninhibited orcontrolled to some extent by the presenter, which may be set as desiredas a system parameter.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual illustration of the attendee conference display37 a illustrating the release of presenter-defined content for editingby an attendee. The upper right content sector 74 is typically used todisplay a slide presentation controlled by the presenter computerstation. The system is configured to allow the presenter to releasecontrol of the slide presentation, which causes an instance of the slidepresentation to be downloaded from the conference server to the attendeecomputer station. The new instance (personal instance) of the slidepresentation is then displayed on the attendee computer station,typically in an attendee-controlled sector 75 directly below thepresenter-controlled sector 74 displaying the presenter's version of theslide show. The attendee may then edit the attendee's instance of theslide show independently from the presenter-controlled instance. Theattendee-edited instance may be displayed only on that particularattendee's computer station or displayed generally to the otherparticipants. The attendee may also save the modified personal instanceof the slide presentation.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual illustration of a participant conference display35 in which the content in a video content sector is switchable from alive camera feed 76 a and a pre-recorded video feed 76 b, which areselectively displayed in the same content sector. In general, thepresenter may select among any number of live and pre-recorded videofeeds that have been provisioned for use during the conference. Inparticular, live camera feeds may be available from each participantlocation and from other remote locations. Similarly, pre-recorded videofeeds may be uploaded or linked to the conference server from any of theany participant computer stations and from other remote locations.Typically, the presenter has the ability to select the active video feeddisplayed in the upper left content sector, and this ability can beassigned to different participants as the presenter baton is passedamong the participants.

FIG. 9 is a conceptual illustration of a participant conference display35 displaying an attachment uploaded by a participant. Links to uploadedattachments typically appear in the bottom networking pane, where anyparticipant can select an attachment for viewing. This particularexample shows a presenter uploaded attachment 78 a and an attendeeuploaded attachment 78 b. Selecting an attachment causes an attachmentwindow 79 to be displayed on top of the other windows in the conferencedisplay and the attachment to be displayed within the attachment window.The attachment window can then be scrolled, resized and relocated asdesired. In general, each participant can open, view and control anattachment without affecting the conference display on the otherparticipant computer stations.

FIG. 10 is a conceptual illustration of a participant conference display35 showing access to avatars entered by meeting participants. A list ofmeeting attendees 80 is typically displayed in the top networking paneand each meeting participant has uploaded an avatar prior to themeeting. Each avatar is linked to the associated name in the list ofmeeting attendees, which causes the avatar to pop up when the userhovers the cursor over the desired participant's name or otherwiseselects the participant from the list. This is represented by the avatar82, which is displayed in connection with the presenter in theparticipant list in FIG. 10. In addition, a geo-location function istypically displayed in the lower left content sector, which includes ageographical map 84 with location icons 86 a-b showing the physicallocations of the meeting participants. Again, when the when the userhovers the cursor over the desired participant's icon shown on the map,the corresponding participant's avatar pops up. This is represented bythe avatar 88, which is displayed in connection with the presenterlocation icon 86 b in the map 84.

FIG. 11 is a conceptual illustration of an attendee conference display37 a implementing a room check function in the multi-media conferencesystem. The room check function allows the presenter to monitor physicalattendance of meeting attendees, as may be useful for testing andrequired meeting presentations. When the presenter issues a room check,a room-check pop-up window 90 appears as a top level window on the onthe attendee conference display. The pop-up window displays a room-checkmessage 92 a, which expires after a predetermined time period. Theattendee may enter an attendance response 92 b within the predeterminedtime period, which is communicated to and recorded by the presentercomputer station. If the attendee fails to enter a timely attendanceresponse, the attendee's conference display may be automaticallyterminated.

FIG. 12 is a conceptual illustration of a presenter conference displayimplementing a personal noteboard 94 and a group noteboard 95. Thepersonal noteboard 94 allows each participant to record text notes thatare not shared with other meeting participants. The group noteboard 95allows the meeting participants to record text notes that are displayedon a common noteboard available for display on all participant computerstations. The noteboards are typically displayed in the bottom leftcontent sector, and the participant can typically switch between thepersonal noteboard 94 and the group noteboard 95 with a mouse click.

FIG. 13 is a conceptual illustration of a presenter conference displayimplementing a personal whiteboard 96 and a group whiteboard 97. Thepersonal whiteboard 96 allows each participant to display images andrecord text notes that are not shared with other meeting participants.The group whiteboard 97 allows the meeting participants to displayimages and record text notes that are displayed on a common whiteboardavailable for display on all participant computer stations. Thewhiteboards are typically displayed in the bottom right content sector,and the participant can typically switch between the personal whiteboard96 and the group whiteboard 97 with a mouse click.

FIG. 14 is a conceptual illustration of an attendee conference display37 a implementing interactive feedback functions. The attendeeconference display shows a number of selectable “emoticons” 100 that theattendee can select to indicate his or her state of comfort with thepresentation. For example, the emoticons can include a happy face icon,a concerned face icon, and an unhappy face icon. When the attendeehovers the cursor over an emoticon, the selected emoticon is shown onthe presenter conference display in association with the selectingattendee's name. In addition, the attendee may click on a selectedemoticon to launch a feedback window 102, in which the attendee canwrite a note to the presenter. The presenter may also send aninteractive feedback item 104 to the attendee, which appears in thefeedback window 102. For example, the interactive feedback item 104 maybe a poll, survey, evaluation, quiz or timed test.

FIG. 15 is a conceptual illustration of a presenter conference display33 implementing the interactive feedback function in coordination withattendee conference displays. The presenter dashboard 108 displays theemoticon 100 activated by each attendee next to the attendee's name.When an attendee sends a note to the presenter, it is displayed in aninteractive response window 100, which also displays responses tointeractive feedback items, such as polls, evaluations, surveys,quizzes, tests, and so forth. The interactive feedback function may alsotabulate and show graphical interactive feedback, such as the results tothe polls, surveys, evaluations, quizzes and tests.

The above described embodiments, while including the preferredembodiment and the best mode of the invention known to the inventor atthe time of filing, are given as illustrative examples only. It will bereadily appreciated that many deviations may be made from the specificembodiments disclosed in this specification without departing from thespirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of theinvention is to be determined by the claims below rather than beinglimited to the specifically described embodiments above.

What is claimed is:
 1. A multi-media conferencing system for conductingan electronic meeting for meeting participants including at least onemeeting presenter and a plurality of attendees through a plurality ofcomputer stations interconnected by a communication network, comprising:a conference server, coupled to the communication network and configuredto receive from the presenter prior to the meeting a plurality ofdifferent conference material files, including a plurality of differenttypes of information resources; a presenter computer station, coupled tothe conference server via the communication network, configured topresent a presenter conference display; a plurality of attendee computerstations, each coupled to the conference server via the communicationnetwork, configured to present an attendee conference display; areporting system configured to maintain a record of the meeting, inwhich the record of the meeting includes: an identity of each meetingparticipant, a length of the meeting, means for presenting on apresenter display a map showing a physical location of each of theparticipants; means for receiving an indication from the presenter thatallows the attendees to access at least one information resource duringa presenter-defined portion of the meeting: means for presenting atleast one quiz on each attendee conference display, receiving responsesfrom each attendee to the quiz and displaying results of the quiz on thepresenter display in real time; and means for presenting on eachattendee conference display an item requiring a response from theattendee within a predetermined time and disconnecting any attendee fromthe meeting who fails to generate the response within the predeterminedtime, each attendee conference display including at least a firstpresenter-controlled sector, a second presenter-controlled sector and anattendee-controlled sector, the first presenter-controlled sector andthe second presenter-controlled sector of each of the plurality ofattendee computer stations each displaying a different set ofinformation simultaneously under control of the presenter so thatidentical content is presented in each presenter-controlled sector ofeach of the plurality of attendee computer stations simultaneously, eachattendee computer station configured to permit a corresponding attendeeindividually to select content in the attendee-controlled sectorselected from a plurality of different content options selected from theplurality of different conference material files and to manipulate theselected content individually.
 2. The multi-media conferencing system ofclaim 1, further comprising a conference recorder, coupled to theconference server, that is configured to record the meeting so as torecord each of the information resources displayed during the meeting ona central server and to allow play back of the meeting after conclusionof the meeting.
 3. The multi-media conferencing system of claim 1,further comprising: a. means for presenting a whiteboard on eachattendee conference display; and b. means for screen casting electronicinformation on the whiteboard, the electronic information includinginformation selected from a group consisting of: a photograph, a video,an audio clip, a text document, and combinations thereof.
 4. Themulti-media conferencing system of claim 1, wherein the reporting systemrecords information including: the name of each of the attendees, howlong they are in a meeting, how many times they leave the meeting, whenthey come & go, all activities done during the session, performance andtest results both after the fact and in real time.
 5. The multi-mediaconferencing system of claim 1, further comprising means for assigningat least two subsets of the plurality of attendee computer stations to acorresponding plurality of breakout sessions, in which attendeesassigned to one breakout session can interact only other attendees tothat one breakout session.
 6. The multi-media conferencing system ofclaim 5, further comprising means for ending the plurality of breakoutssessions at the end of a predetermined amount of time.
 7. Themulti-media conferencing system of claim 5, further comprising means forending the plurality of breakouts sessions in response to a input fromthe presenter computer station.
 8. The multi-media conferencing systemof claim 5, further comprising means for recording activity occurringduring each of the plurality of breakout sessions.
 9. The multi-mediaconferencing system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the firstpresenter-controlled sector and the second presenter-controlled sectordisplays a real time video stream.
 10. The multi-media conferencingsystem of claim 1, wherein the plurality of different types ofinformation resources are selected from a group of information resourcesconsisting of: three dimensional models, text documents, graphicalimages, photos, spreadsheets and combinations thereof.
 11. Themulti-media conferencing system of claim 1, wherein each attendeeconference display further includes a second attendee-controlled sector.12. A method of conducting an electronic meeting for a plurality ofmeeting participants including at least one meeting presenter and aplurality of attendees through a plurality of computer stationsinterconnected by a communication network, comprising the steps of:uploading to a conference server that is coupled to the communicationnetwork a plurality of different conference material files, including aplurality of different types of information resources, prior to theelectronic meeting; displaying an attendee conference display on each ofa plurality of attendee computer stations so that each attendeeconference display includes at least a first presenter-controlled sectorand a second presenter-controlled sector; displaying in twopresenter-controlled sectors of each of a plurality of attendee computerstations at least two different sets of information simultaneously undercontrol of the presenter so that identical content is presented in eachpresenter-controlled sector of each of the plurality of attendeecomputer stations simultaneously; displaying in an attendee-controlledsector of each of a plurality of attendee computer stations contentselected by an attendee; permitting each attendee individually to selectcontent in the attendee-controlled sector selected from a plurality ofdifferent content options and to manipulate the selected contentindividually, so that each attendee views content in theattendee-controlled sector independently of each other attendee;presenting on a presenter display a map showing a physical location ofeach of the participants; recording the meeting so as to record each ofthe information resources displayed during the meeting so as to allowplay back of the meeting by one of the attendees after conclusion of themeeting; receiving an indication from the presenter that allows theattendees to access at least one information resource during apresenter-defined portion of the meeting; presenting at least one quizon each attendee conference display, receiving responses from eachattendee to the quiz and displaying results of the quiz on the presenterdisplay in real time; presenting on each attendee conference display anitem requiring a response from the attendee within a predetermined timeand disconnecting any attendee from the meeting who fails to generatethe response within the predetermined time; and maintaining a logindicating activity of each attendee, including: the name of each of theattendees, how long they are in a meeting, how many times they leave themeeting, when they come & go, all activities done during the session,performance and test results both after the fact and in real time. 13.The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of a. presenting awhiteboard on each attendee conference display; and b. screen castingelectronic information on the whiteboard, the electronic informationincluding information selected from a group consisting of: a photograph,a video, an audio clip, a text document, and combinations thereof. 14.The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of assigning atleast two subsets of the plurality of attendee computer stations to acorresponding plurality of breakout sessions, in which attendeesassigned to one breakout session can interact only other attendees tothat one breakout session.
 15. The method of claim 12, furthercomprising the step of ending the plurality of breakouts sessions at theend of a predetermined amount of time.
 16. The method of claim 12,further comprising the step of ending the plurality of breakoutssessions in response to a input from the presenter computer station. 17.The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of recordingactivity occurring during each of the plurality of breakout sessions.18. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the firstpresenter-controlled sector and the second presenter-controlled sectordisplays a real time video stream.
 19. The method of claim 12, whereinthe plurality of different types of information resources are selectedfrom a group of information resources consisting of: three dimensionalmodels, text documents, graphical images, photos, spreadsheets andcombinations thereof.
 20. The method of claim 12, wherein each attendeeconference display further includes a second attendee-controlled sector.